To top it off, most of these booths have gone out of date. That being said, the price for such a service is comparable to that of the previous option. This implies some pressure if you need your photo urgently (say, for the upcoming DV lottery). The rest, however, is up to you: you have to check that the overall look of your photo meets the relevant ID requirements.

It hasn’t got any built-in photo editor, so all it has to offer is a proper background, lighting, and photo printer. Sadly, this machine can’t take care of every detail for you like a human photographer. Creating a mere JPEG shouldn’t be that expensive, don’t you think?

Of course, all this convenience doesn’t come for free: it will cost you $10-15 on average. When it’s done, they’ll also check the resulting printable image against the requirements for this photo type (DV lottery green card photo, identification headshot, social security card picture, etc.). They will also make sure that your face is fully visible and of the correct size, and so on. The photographer will set up their camera, ensure proper lighting in the room, and create a plain background. This variant is most useful when you want someone else to prepare a perfect picture for you. Take your ID photo in a retail store, pharmacy, shipping center, or professional studio.